Common Questions - Top Hat Monocle Classroom Response System

Cell phones are universal, and you can reasonably expect 99%+ students to own them. Similarly, over 90% of students entering university own a laptop (98%+ in some schools.) Over 60% of students own a smartphone. Between these three categories of devices you can expect less than 1 in 500 students to not have some kind of device.
Cell phones are incredibly cheap, and can be obtained either free with a cell phone plan, or for a nominal ($10-20) cost. Certainly cell phones are cheaper than clickers.

This is a common concern and is something that we take seriously and always monitor.
The reality is that essentially every single student has a cell phone that is turned on in their pocket in class (set to vibrate mode so it doesn’t disturb the class but notifies them of incoming messages.) Generally, whether or not the student uses the cell phone to distract themselves is not determined by whether they use that same cell phone to participate in class. Certainly having students bring clickers to class will not be much of a deterrent to using that cell phone as a distraction.
Also, think about it. If the classroom is interactive, and students know they will be held accountable for the material being presented, they are much less likely to be texting and checking emails during lecture. The 'I'll learn this later' mentality doesn't hold up if students know they'll be tested on retention and comprehension throughout lecture. Plus, if students' laptops are used to watch an interactive demo or their cell phones are used to participate in discussion, you know they aren't using them to text friends or browse Facebook!

If you are looking to do quick poll questions in class then 30-45 seconds is typically enough time (of course you can take longer if you discuss the question or if it’s a complex problem.)
You can do questions more quickly if you activate multiple questions at once and allow students to go through them all on their own without breaks to wait for everyone to submit answers for every question.
There is a very wide range of time that can be spent on Top Hat Monocle during the lecture, from as little as 30 seconds for one or two questions at the end of the lecture, to as much as 10-15 minutes through the lecture for 5-10 questions and a few interactive demos. It really varies from professor to professor and his/her unique teaching style.

This varies widely from professor to professor, depending on how the tool is used.
For example, if you have already adopted a clicker in your lecture and have created and embedded your questions in your presentation slides, but would like to replace clicker with Top Hat Monocle to take advantage of some of the new features that this new technology provides, there is essentially no preparation other than an hour for training.
If you have not used clicker and are planning to use Top Hat Monocle tool entirely outside the classroom as homework then the preparation time can be as little as a few hours at the start of the term to select the demos you will use through the term and then 1 minute every week to activate the demos you choose.
If you have not used clickers and plan to use the tool in lectures with 1-2 questions per lecture then it would be reasonable to dedicate at least an hour per week to plan in advance the questions you will do in each lecture that week. You can allow Top Hat Monocle to transform as much or as little of the classroom experience as you like, using the features of the tool that best complement your teaching style.

Of course all content uploaded to Top Hat Monocle by professors is owned by the professor.
Any content in the demonstration libraries provided by Top Hat Monocle is owned by us.

We are always adding new content and demonstrations to our library. If you are interested in developing custom content for your course we can put you in touch with our content team and they will prioritize developing content that works with your course.
Typically the process is as follows: you provide course material, such as course notes and any specific ideas you have for demos. Then we will assign a designer to build the “storyboard“ for the demonstration. After one or two iterations, once you are happy with the design, it will be sent to the developers. The process typically takes a few weeks to a month.

Top Hat Monocle costs $20 per semester for students, regardless of how many courses they are taking. Students can also purchase 5-year subscriptions for $38. Department or school wide licenses follow similar pricing with discounts for volume purchases.
We are always very transparent with our pricing and have the same prices for all schools without any “registration“ or per-course fees.

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